High Water Bill?

Have you received a water bill that seems abnormally high? If you suspect your excessive water use may be the cause of a leaking pipe or plumbing fixture, you may qualify for our leak allowance program.

Credit for High Water Bills
To encourage customers to make repairs to leaking plumbing fixtures, we will provide an allowance credit on high water bills. The leak allowance program is open to all single-family residential, multifamily residential and non-residential accounts. We shall be the sole judge in determining the excess delivery due to leakage.

Allowance Credit
An allowance credit is applied to the customer’s bill. The amount of the allowance is equal to the amount over the account’s normal consumption, and depends on the type of leak that caused the high bill.

Apply for a Credit Leak allowance credits are reviewed and processed by our High Consumption Unit. The High Consumption Unit is governed by the Rules and Regulations Governing Water Service to Customers, Section D, Rule 6 (see below).

Apply for a leak allowance credit by contacting the High Consumption Unit at (415) 551-4780.

The customer has sole control of the water delivered beyond our meter and we are not responsible for maintenance and the repairs of the pipes and fixtures beyond the meter. In order to encourage prompt repairs of leaking pipes or fixtures the department may, under certain conditions, grant allowances for apparently excessive bills resulting from leakage beyond the meter. All risk of loss beyond the point of delivery shall be borne by the customer, except as otherwise provided herein.

(a) Allowance may be granted only when claim has been received and evidence clearly shows that the apparently excessive bill is due to leaking pipes or fixtures and not wasteful use and then only when repairs have been promptly made and reported to us. The allowance, if granted, will be for not more than two billing periods including that in which the claim was made.

(b) Allowance ordinarily may be granted on the basis of one-half of the excess delivery due to leakage but in the case of concealed leaks in underground or unexposed pipes, full excess may be allowed.

(c) Outside San Francisco no allowance will be made on account of leakage except when in our judgment, exceptional conditions justify allowance and then only for concealed leaks in underground or unexposed pipes. In the event, allowance may be granted based on from fifty to one hundred percent of the excess delivery. No allowance shall apply to customer taking water for resale.

We shall be the sole judge in determining the excess delivery due to leakage.